The U.S. International Trade Commission's Office of Unfair Import Investigation, otherwise known as "ITC staff," issued a filing in support of a preliminary finding from an administrative law judge that held Samsung in violation of four Apple patents.

According to a redacted filing published on Thursday, as reported by FOSS Patents's Florian Mueller, the OUII found that ALJ Thomas Pender "did not commit legal or factual error" in his initial determination regarding Samsung's infringement of certain Apple patents. The support brings the ITC case one step closer to being resolved after both parties petitioned for a review, with Apple wanting broader sanctions while Samsung looks to protect its products from a possible sales ban.

Mueller noted that the ITC staff acts as a third party which defends public interest by offering recommendations to the body, however the guidance does not have to be followed by either the Commission or ALJs. The OUII didn't submit its own petition for review in this specific case, which could have been passive move in support of Judge Pender's initial decision.

From the filing:

For the foregoing reasons, the OUII submits that the Administrative Law Judge did not commit legal or factual error. As such, Respondents petition should be denied. With the exception of entering a conclusion of law that the SPH-M920 and associated accused products infringe claim 3 of the 501 patent, Complaints petition should also be denied.

The '501 patent is an Apple-held property covering a portable device's headset plug and accompanying detection circuitry, Claim 3 of which pertains to the monitoring whether the headset's microphone is activated. In the U.S., the infringing product is known as Sprint's Samsung Transform.

Mueller pointed out that if the Commission were to adopt the ITC staff recommendation, a sales ban as specified by the initial determination could be instituted "rather quickly," however such an injunction against legacy products would likely be meaningless if workarounds are already in place. It is unknown what impact a supporting Commission ruling would have, however, as Samsung's workarounds have yet to be revealed.

In its petition for review, Apple may be seeking a reversal of Judge Pender's finding of non-infringement for certain Samsung products regarding a design patent for the iPhone 3GS, as well as a similar judgment on a utility patent involving plug detection mechanisms. If the two assertions were to be validated by the Commission, the Samsung sales ban would be widened to include at least two more handsets.

As for Samsung's petition, the company is raising many of the issues already decided by Judge Pender, including claim construction, infringement and validity, and tacks on "prejudicial procedural errors" having to do with evidence submittal.

The ITC is also scheduled to review a separate complaint regarding a previous decision that cleared Apple of infringing on Samsung's wireless patents, with that final determination slated to come some time next year.

Apple will get nothing out of this. Samsung and Android are absolutely killing Apple. Apple is walking in a pouring Android rain without an umbrella. The ensuing flash flood will drown Apple. It's already happening. Wall Street has already come to a conclusion Apple is done for and Apple's share price will continue to falter. Android is being favored to win on both the smartphone and tablet platforms. Apple's P/E is being continually compressed as investors lose faith in Apple and Tim Cook. Small patent victories mean absolutely nothing. Samsung will quickly make workarounds and sell their smartphones and tablets for even less money to increase their market share. To Wall Street, market share is everything. Supposedly, any company with minor market share is basically doomed to failure.

I guess it's just a matter of time before investors completely give up on Apple. With all the reserve cash Apple has, one would figure they'd have put up a better fight to stop rivals from taking everything from them. Apple has far more employees than either Amazon or Google but Apple seems to be accomplishing so little while Amazon and Google branch out into new businesses. It's really sad how Steve Jobs had to die so soon and now the company is starting to slowly decline.

Originally Posted by Constable Odo
Apple will get nothing out of this. Samsung and Android are absolutely killing Apple. Apple is walking in a pouring Android rain without an umbrella. The ensuing flash flood will drown Apple. It's already happening. Wall Street has already come to a conclusion Apple is done for and Apple's share price will continue to falter. Android is being favored to win on both the smartphone and tablet platforms. Apple's P/E is being continually compressed as investors lose faith in Apple and Tim Cook. Small patent victories mean absolutely nothing. Samsung will quickly make workarounds and sell their smartphones and tablets for even less money to increase their market share. To Wall Street, market share is everything. Supposedly, any company with minor market share is basically doomed to failure.

I guess it's just a matter of time before investors completely give up on Apple. With all the reserve cash Apple has, one would figure they'd have put up a better fight to stop rivals from taking everything from them. Apple has far more employees than either Amazon or Google but Apple seems to be accomplishing so little while Amazon and Google branch out into new businesses. It's really sad how Steve Jobs had to die so soon and now the company is starting to slowly decline.

Where's the "/s"? We need one of those or quotes around the whole thing.

If only our courts here in the UK would take notice of these findings & act accordingly too. You only have to think would most smartphones & pads / tablets look & act exactly like they do now if not for Apple?

As the saying goes, 'sometimes the law can be an ...'

At least if others licensed instead of poached, well done HTC, things would be better all round.